Social networking platforms are an increasingly popular way for people to connect with friends, colleagues, and those who share common interests. Users can set up profiles, add personal information, make connections, create events, and join groups related to their views, hobbies and activities. Groups may allow users to communicate and coordinate with other users with whom they may not have external relationships.
Unfortunately, untrustworthy individuals may take advantage of social networking groups to masquerade as legitimate associates and communicate with group members under false pretenses. Such individuals may use easily acquired group memberships to launch social engineering attacks, to gain access to organizational information and/or activities intended only for the group, and/or to engage in mass marketing to certain demographics.
Users may be unlikely to check whether each member of a group appears to be legitimate before sharing information with a group. Moreover, users may lack access to sufficient information to make accurate judgments, especially in large and complex social networks. Accordingly, the instant disclosure identifies and addresses a need for additional and improved systems and methods for validating members of social networking groups.